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Can electricity pylons be beautiful?
- mchanson 3y agoI kinda like all of them. My kid, when they were little, starting calling them robots. e.g. “Dad, look at that robot!”
- AnonCoward42 3y agoYeah the articles premise is already speculation, but phrased as a fact. > Most people seem to view electricity pylons as a blight - ugly landmarks towering over the landscape. I don't view them as ugly either. There is some beauty in truly functional design imo.
- crazygringo 3y agoI can see how they have a kind of beauty in a laboratory or industrial plant or something. But as part of nature? Set across an landscape otherwise made of plants and trees and hills? For me, that's a million times no. I can't think of anything uglier or more jarring. The cold gray angular lattice skeleton feels like it couldn't be more opposite to all of the positive aesthetic qualities of nature.
- actionfromafar 3y agoIt can have its own kind of sci-fi esque beauty, I think.
- crazygringo 3y agoI think the key word is "fi" there, for "fiction". I love it in a movie or an evocative painting or a comic. I don't want it in real life, though. Kind of like, I love watching Blade Runner. I don't want to live there.
- Dylan16807 3y agoThe reason I don't want to live there is societal. I welcome many of the aesthetics.
- fluoridation 3y ago>I can't think of anything uglier or more jarring. Speaking for myself, I like it because it's jarring. It's a juxtaposition of geometric against organic. Pure function against purposelessness.
- haltist 3y agoI highly recommend a tour of your local electricity distribution substation, you will learn a lot about how the modern world operates. If you can visit one of the main power plants then that's even better.
- OJFord 3y agoI think they're ugly and unfortunate in the UK; in the parts of North America I've seen there's so much large visible infrastructure that they blend right in, it's a kind of 'where do you start' situation if you want to prettify them. I think there should just be some sensitivity to context, i.e. what we've already done to nature.
- klyrs 3y agoThey really don't blend in. The ground around them is cleared of trees (of which there are many, everywhere in NA that I've lived) which makes them stick out like a sore thumb. For a time, I lived near the top of a hill, and the nearest pylon to my house has a honkin' bright flasher at the top. Usually, this wasn't an issue, but the park nearby would often get thick fog at night. Nothing like walking through a lovely foggy wooded park, pulsating with a bright omnipresent flash every 10 seconds. Of course, it's better than a plane hitting the house in the fog.
- Gare 3y ago> The cold gray angular lattice skeleton Some are painted green :)
- crazygringo 3y agoI've never seen that! Where? That feels like it helps at least a bit, maybe.
- Gare 3y agoI think I saw several across Europe. Here's one in Croatia: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ikZfxSPX7gbuVFFv8 https://maps.app.goo.gl/ikZfxSPX7gbuVFFv8 When it comes to pylon shapes, I quite like this one because it vaguely looks like a goat: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZsmXL95mr1fknCqw7 https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZsmXL95mr1fknCqw7
- reportgunner 3y ago> The cold gray angular lattice skeleton feels like it couldn't be more opposite to all of the positive aesthetic qualities of nature. That's the beauty of it. Same like a hiker wearing synthetic material clothes in a pristine nature range.
- crazygringo 3y ago> wearing synthetic material clothes Funny you mention it -- I hate the neon day-glo colors of so much hiking and active outerwear as well. For God's sake, try to blend in a little, you know? Earth tones, people. (Except in safety situations like hunting, obviously.)
- fluoridation 3y agoThe point of the colors is precisely to be highly visible. If you become incapacitated the last thing you want is to blend in with the surroundings. You might also notice that there's very few skiing outfits that are mostly white, or swimming suits that are mostly blue. To only reason someone would want to be more difficult to see is if they're trying to sneak up on someone.
- TaylorAlexander 3y agoYeah they remind me of my dad’s electric train set. The power lines bring in the electricity needed for the train to work and that makes me happy.
- fnord77 3y ago"No."
- smegsicle 3y agothat law of headlines is safe if those images are anything to go by though the one with the color panels would look fine if they removed the color panels
- xanderlewis 3y agoFor those who are unfamiliar: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headli...
- CharlesW 3y agoAs a kid, I was awed by these stick-figure mechs. I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
- Prickle 3y agoI was fully expecting cost or safety being an issue, but I did not expect this: (Specifically for the "Land of Giants" project.) > A proposal in Norway faltered after a local mayor - spotting the visitor attraction potential of the structures - agreed they could be built in his town, as long as they weren't built anywhere else in the country. Quite sad that alternative shaped (?) Pylons do exist, and some of them are really neat; yet are hampered by politics.
- kazinator 3y agoI took a look; Betteridge's Law holds up here. The most important thing is to make them all the same as much as possible so that people who have to maintain them don't have to deal with annoying variations.
- twobitshifter 3y agoI love this idea. Look at The Sejourne Viaduct for a strong case of beauty in infrastructure. https://c8.alamy.com/comp/K6YGA0/france-pyrenees-orientales-natural-regional-park-catalan-pyrenees-K6YGA0.jpg https://c8.alamy.com/comp/K6YGA0/france-pyrenees-orientales-... People decry the loss of views in suburbs when a train might run next to the freeway. They hear train tracks and think ugly. But we can build sightly infrastructure that does not detract from the world’s most beautiful places.
- jfk13 3y agoAh, viaducts! We have a wonderful one not far away, too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouse_Valley_Viaduct#/media/File:Viaductverttn.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouse_Valley_Viaduct#/media/Fil...
- 15457345234 3y agoInfrastructure can add to the landscape just as easily as it takes away from it. I've never understood the 'unspoilt beauty' types - 90% of the time the 'unspoilt' beauty they're talking about only exists because of human intervention. Rolling hills would look a lot different if they weren't used for agriculture or didn't have sheep occasionally cropping them.
- exabrial 3y agoI think the harder you try, the more it becomes an eyesore. My favorite are Corten steel (a self protecting steel that rusts a nice natural red color) pylons personally... They just look "right" in a landscape, or at least as much as you can for humans planting wind turbines everywhere.
- scythe 3y agoIt's my understanding that weathering steels are avoided for structural applications, since while the corrosion behavior is usually pretty good, it can still be variable and unsatisfactory. There are a few high-profile cases of structures made from COR-TEN and similar that failed due to ineffective patination. It's a shame, since I agree that it does look nicer than most painted objects. Work has continued in improving the alloy chemistry, so that it can be used for e.g. fencing without creating too many rust stains on nearby objects. One day we may be able to recreate the Delhi pillar alloy.
- 31carmichael 3y agoI agree. If you try to make a fancy design, you may draw more eyes to it, which defeats the purpose. If you really want to look at that hideous example from Hungary, you are weird. There are techniques, such as putting them halfway down, rather than on top of a ridge, to help them blend into the surroundings. But it's unlikely that you'll make them beautiful. Try, but not too hard maybe.
- Clamchop 3y agoI just kind of generally like the aesthetics of infrastructure, but I can see why others would think utility pylons are ugly.
- crazygringo 3y agoA++ for creativity! (But still no.) It makes me wonder: all underground power lines are still laid by digging up the ground, laying them down, and then filling the dirt back in. Which is super-expensive. Right? Are we trying to develop any technology for "microboring" in tunnels through dirt and clay, and maybe bedrock when occasionally necessary? E.g. just a two-inch diameter tube or something, that's even able to go underneath rivers and things? Solely for laying underground wires? I dream of a world without electricity pylons...
- pram 3y agoGoogle uses “microtrenching” to lay fiber, so it’s definitely already a thing in places where there’s already infrastructure.
- ortusdux 3y agoI've wondered if there was some way to replace sidewalks with pre-cast sections that would allow for utility runs. Maybe something the size of septic tanks, with a removable lid that doubles as a sidewalk. I'm sure there are some significant practical limitations I am ignorant of.
- quickthrowman 3y ago> I'm sure there are some significant practical limitations I am ignorant of. Yes, the steel framing or reinforced concrete panels that would be needed to hold up the precast concrete sidewalk would be very expensive. You don’t need the entire conductor accessible anyways, that’s what tuggers and mule tape are for, pulling wire. Also, all of the pipes would need to be supported from the underground concrete/steel structure and you would also need a lot of (expensive) expansion joints. Laying pipes in the ground and burying them lets the earth support them instead of pipe hangers. There are some colleges/institutions to do use tunnels to run steam pipes through a campus, and they tend to build purpose-built tunnels for those. I’m not a pipefitter, so I’m unsure why steam pipes get their own tunnels, perhaps a MechE or pipefitter can weigh in! Underground electrical feeder conduits (on customer premises, I only deal in the electrical world beyond the utility transformer secondary) are typically run in concrete encased ‘duct bank’, with manholes every so often. Electrical vaults/manholes are available as precast pieces that you simply lower into place. Precast electrical vaults: https://www.ecbabbert.com/utility/electric-structures/electric-manholes/ https://www.ecbabbert.com/utility/electric-structures/electr...
- freitzkriesler2 3y agoYes but you must construct additional pylons.
- chrisco255 3y agoNot gonna save you from my Zerg rush.
- wheelerof4te 3y agoPulling the probes required every time since 1 zealot simply doesn't beat 6 zerglings.
- annoyingnoob 3y agoBury the wires and plant trees. I know, crazy idea.
- phyzome 3y agoI know it's a tempting idea, but there are very good reasons we use wires suspended in air instead of burying them.
- scythe 3y agoAs a physicist, I am often in danger of doing this: https://xkcd.com/793/ https://xkcd.com/793/ So: it seems like one of the more obvious faults of pylons is that they are the wrong color. Usually, they are white or grey (etc) which does not really gel with the existing natural landscape. It seems like the first step in fixing the problem would simply be to paint them brown, tan, green or blue, depending on the location -- possibly with a few brightly colored details so that they aren't too subtle. Bonus points for a paint that has inherent color variations, because flat colors are too visually distracting. (Why does pylon design even need a journal, anyway?)
- Gare 3y agoSome are indeed painted, but that adds to the cost.
- bandyaboot 3y agoWeathering steel seems like it could be a decent compromise between color and cost. Though admittedly I’m just assuming it would be less expensive than painting and maintaining said paint.
- perchard 3y ago“Ian pointed out that whereas our culture openly invites us to be aware of birds and historic churches, it places no comparable emphasis on pylons, despite the fact that that they often rival, for ingenuity and beauty, many of the more established objects of our curiosity. He cited as an example Loch Awe in Scotland, a famously picturesque and romantic tourist destination dominated by the ruins of the fourteenth-century Kilchurn Castle, whose grounds are nevertheless crossed by a run of 400-kilowatt pylons linking the hydroelectric power station at Ben Cruachan with the Glasgow suburbs. On postcards of the loch and its castle, however, the electricity lines are almost invariably airbrushed out, so that the scenery pretends to a fictitious innocence, the bare hills and unsullied lake being symptomatic of what Ian (having grown increasingly garrulous under the influence of brandy) condemned as the garden-gnome mentality of sentimental Luddites.” — The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work: t/c (Vintage International) by Alain De Botton https://a.co/1CjMq1u https://a.co/1CjMq1u
- hyperthesis 3y agoin another 700 years, the pylon ruins will be the focus bare hills result from deforestation
- crabmusket 3y agoThis is an unrelated tangent, but I'd like to point out the conventional and inaccurate use of Luddite to mean "generically against any kind of technology or 'progress'". The Luddites were not anti-technology; they were labour activists. They smashed machines because it was their leverage over the owning class. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-the-luddites-really-fought-against-264412/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-the-luddites-rea...
- the_mitsuhiko 3y agoCádiz has fascinating ones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pylons_of_C%C3%A1diz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pylons_of_C%C3%A1diz
- paganel 3y agoSimilar, the Shukhov Tower on the Oka River [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shukhov_Tower_on_the_Oka_River https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shukhov_Tower_on_the_Oka_River
- tempestn 3y agoSurprised the comments here are mostly negative. I think the land of the giants ones are very cool. It'd be too much if they were like that everywhere, but I definitely appreciate the concept, and could see the argument for calling them "beautiful".
- orbital-decay 3y agoWhen used in moderation outside of cities, power lines look great on the landscape. I guess I'd prefer the pylons simply painted to complement the landscape in a tasteful manner, while still clearly standing out as artificial. The examples in the article aren't good at hiding their nature either. Maybe I'm too used to the sight of the pyramidal trusses but I'm finding most of these designs either kitsch or more ugly than the existing ones.
- drannex 3y agoYou obviously haven't been on Tumblr lately where there is a giant objectum culture and love all things electric. Pylons are the rulers of dreams over there, entire blogs devoted to their beauty. The inherent eroticism of the machine and the like.
- 7952 3y agoSure they can be beautiful but they shouldn't need to be. The aversion people feel about new pylons is not based on asthetics but irrational fear.
- throwaway5959 3y agoOne thing is for sure, to ensure a bright future we must construct additional pylons.
- enavari 3y agoMust construct additional pylons
- amelius 3y agoAt least they don't look like giant ads.
- dTal 3y ago>The designers say the issue isn't necessarily one of cost, pointing out that their pylons are made out of the same material as a regular pylon, simply put together in a different way. I feel compelled to point out that any "artistic" deviation from structural optimality will necessarily use more material to achieve the same sturdiness, and hence cost more. And when you have to put one every few hundred meters across a whole country, that's kind of a big deal.
- OJFord 3y agoAnd while you're spending more, just put them underground. No need to make it a 10% like it 80% don't care 10% hate it art situation.
- phyzome 3y agoIt's not going to cost 5-10x more to make the artistic design. And there are reasons beyond installation cost to avoid underground transmission -- maintenance is also way more expensive, and I believe it's also more fragile that way.
- OJFord 3y agoWell, I don't know the relative costs, but it's done, and looks a lot better (and with more agreement)!
- crote 3y agoIt's a combination of things, really. Underground is about twice as expensive as above-ground, harder to maintain and repair, and pretty much impossible to upgrade. A lot of the medium-voltage stuff is already underground in some areas. All new 50kV-150kV stuff has been going underground for decades, and the stuff remaining above-ground just hasn't reached its replacement age yet. Despite its drawbacks, above-ground is unpopular enough that burying them is worth it. However, the high-voltage stuff (220kV & 380kV) is still almost entirely above-ground. Those cables are extremely difficult to construct, and anything beyond a dozen miles or so simply isn't technically possible yet.
- nyanpasu64 3y agoI'm reminded of https://powerlinesinanime.tumblr.com/ https://powerlinesinanime.tumblr.com/. Oddly they seem more peaceful and calming in anime than in real life photos and views.
- wheelerof4te 3y agoPylons are indeed beautiful when they power my buildings in Starcraft with their blue psi-glow.
- tamaharbor 3y agoI have always thought of the standard distribution electric or ‘telephone’ pole as a religious cross. Electric companies can start an ‘Adopt a Cross’ program for additional revenue.
- emmelaich 3y agoOnly needs a few additions to make a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerne_Abbas_Giant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerne_Abbas_Giant
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- reportgunner 3y agoThey can definitely be beautiful but making them look like persons holding up the wire is not very creative.
- a_gnostic 3y agoAllowing me to run a coil under them, for running them over my land, seems fair and calming.